The streets and sidewalks leading to the Sanctuario de San Pedro Bautista on Del Monte Avenue in Quezon City will be transformed into a Spanish-era cobblestone paseo, Quezon City Mayor Herbert Bautista announced.
The Sanctuario de San Pedro Bautista, buit in 1590, is the oldest church in the city.
Under the P23-million redevelopment plan, at least 600 meters of the San Pedro Bautista Street shall be patterned after Vigan’s Calle Crisologo and the stretch from De Vera Street to Roosevelt Avenue will be cobbled and adorned with period lamp posts and wooden benches reminiscent of the Spanish Baroque.
Horse-drawn carriages or kalesas will convey tourists on Sanctuario de San Pedro Bautista Street.
The city government’s Special Design Group is persuading homeowners in the area to allow their homes to be redesigned.
Bautista also tasked the City Planning and Development Office, the Legal Office, the Barangay Operations Center and the Market Development and Administration Department to implement the re-development plan, which will also cover management of traffic and informal settlements in the area.
San Pedro Bautista, a Spanish Franciscan missionary who came to the Philippines in 1584, was the founder of the Sanctuario de San Pedro Bautista. His feast day is February 6.
Every year, the city government, through the Tourism Department, organizes various religious and cultural activities during the Grand Pedrista Festival which is being celebrated every February as a tribute to San Pedro Bautista, who was noted for his work with lepers.
The re-development plan for Sanctuario de San Pedro is expected to boost the city’s tourism, said Bautista.
“If the tourism industry is robust, then businesses will be encouraged to open. If businesses will flourish, there will be employment,” he said.